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Letter: water is the priority

City Council incumbents expressing concern over future water issues with regard to watersheds, please ponder the following:
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City Council incumbents expressing concern over future water issues with regard to watersheds, please ponder the following:

Watersheds are vital - approximately 86% of BC’s population uses surface water as it’s drinking supply. Small and medium sized streams being the most common sources serving over 75% of population.

In Kootenays almost “all” our watersheds are being logged.

Quality and quantity of water within a watershed is largely a function of “intact” forest cover. Rates of surface soil erosion are very low in “forested” watersheds.

“Small” watersheds being more susceptible to alteration in water flow or quantity because “any” disturbance will affect a high proportion of the watershed area.

Little monitoring data exists for high elevation water. Past data has been poorly archived and current data is not readily available to the public. Many aquifers remain unmapped. Small watersheds are not well represented in water monitoring.

Climate changes are reflected in the forest. Low flows in smaller and lower elevation watersheds, and watersheds without glaciers, are especially susceptible to warming because a greater proportion of precipitation is received as rain, and does not go into storage as snow for subsequent melt during the late summer and early fall when stream flows are low. Summer precipitation is projected to decline, thereby intensifying the decline in low flows.

Fires (BC Wildlife - 40% human caused) - govt. policy allows all recreation enthusiasts into the bush, on and off resource roads, with little oversight regardless of extreme fire conditions.

July 2015 - wildfires burned at Nelson’s doorstep, city was on Stage 4 water restrictions for two months. Outside Nelson, rural residents, dependent on surface water, continued to see lower water levels in the streams they rely on for drinking water. Some residents were completely without water at times during the summer. “If there had been a significant wildfire closer to the city, we don’t even know if the city would’ve had the water resources to fight it and keep the taps running,” (April 6, 2016. Nelson Star)

The above comprises only a small fraction of information related to watersheds - enough though to seriously consider if sources of drinking water (Mark and Matthew Creek) should have been compromised by further development.

How we care for the elements of nature that provide us with good drinking water, and other benefits, should be foremost in our actions. This value is “more” important than economic gain. Simply stated, humans/animals can not flourish without intact forest ecosystems.

Water is the priority, along with our forests that work to produce it.

Cheryl Olsen

St. Mary Valley Resident